Riots in France! The French Surrender to Themselves!
For those of you who don’t keep up with the news, There have been riots in France for over a week now. Poor Arab and African people throughout the country have been expressing anger against the system by destroying both their, and other communities.
The incident was sparked when 2 youths running from police were electrocuted while hiding in a power station. The police deny that they were chasing the youths.
http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/europe/11/06/france.riots/index.html
Some hateful bloggers and newscasters have made a point of repeatedly reminding us that these people are followers of Islam in an attempt to blame the religion for the actions of the youth. The reality has little to do with their religion. Like most immigrants, the Arab and African people who came to France were looking for jobs and a better life. What they found was high unemployment and discrimination. France has enacted a number of laws aimed at undesirables. Immigration laws specifically target Arabs and people from Northern Africa. France recently enacted a law that prohibited all religious wear (head coverings, necklaces, etc) in schools. Many believe the law was intended to stop Muslim youths, like the kind who are Arab and/or from North Africa, from expressing their religion.
Much of Europe is dealing with these kinds of issues. Many people are firmly of the belief that citizens of their country should all act a certain way and engage in certain customs. This is especially true of France, which has an organization devoted to keeping the French language…French, lest it become a perverse mishmash of words from other languages, like English. Some Europeans are upset at the idea of an American custom, Halloween, becoming more popular in their countries. Many European countries have moved away from the idea of nationality by birthright, and instead towards nationality via bloodline. This makes it even more difficult for immigrant communities to become integrated, since they will always live in the country at the whim of the government.
The best way to solve this problem seems to be learning to accept people who are different. Simple to say, hard to practice…
posted by SumThing @ 9:37 AM
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